Scrooge McDuck's Childhood home

[RobbK1]

Hi Friends,
Jan Gulbransson and I are working on a story in which Donald and his nephews travel to Scotland to visit Uncle Scrooge’s childhood home. Since reading Carl Barks’ stories at a young age from 1942-1962 (to end of Dell/beginning of Gold Key), I have always thought Scrooge grew up in Cheapside, Scotland. I assumed that Cheapside was a village or small town in the highlands of Scotland, as The Clan McDuck was still so strong an idea among Scrooge’s family (The Clans in Scotland were still intact mainly in The Highlands, as opposed to the modernised big cities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee).

I did not think that Scrooge was raised in a district of a big city (that Cheapside had that status), or in a suburb of such a city (Glasgow), or even a small town in the lowlands, somewhere near Glasgow.

But, I only read most of the Gold Key Barks stories one or two times. So, maybe Barks provided more childhood information in one of those. Also, I have not read the Rosa stories dealing with that subject.

For those researchers amongst you, please inform me where Barks and Rosa had Scrooge spend his childhood, and if they touched upon his attending elementary school there, and if he lived at all at Dismal Downs Castle, or only in a small “poor man’s house”.

Thanks.

[RobbK1]

I see that Rosa placed Scrooge's childhood home in Glasgow, in the story where he has him earn his first US dime as a shoeshine boy.  And, I see also that Arild Midthun followed Rosa's lead, and placed young Scrooge in Glasgow.

[hex]

In the Midthun story The Orphan's Christmas Scrooge is 12 years old and is still selling peat blocks in Glasgow, a clear reference to Don Rosa’s The Last of the Clan McDuck.

In The Last of the Clan McDuck we pretty much fast forward through Scrooge’s childhood beginning as a shoe shiner, then selling firewood and peat blocks. The shoe shining reference is from The Invisible Intruder where we get to know the family was poor, and the fire wood is from The Golden River where Scrooge say:

"I never had time to read stories when I was a boy! I scoured the hills of my native Scotland looking for firewood!" and "I spent my boyhood working and starting my fortune!"

I can’t remember any Barks or Rosa stories about Scrooge going to school (but that shouldn't keep you from making one)

[squeakyboots]

The first chapter of Life and Times of Scrooge covers this. Scrooge lived with his family in a small house in Glasgow, Scotland (A city that exists in real life) before he traveled to America through working on a cattle boat sometime after his tenth birthday. He never lived in Castle McDuck as his family lost the land for it until Scrooge was able to rebuy it later on. I don't recall him going to school ever being brought up in that story. I figure his family couldn't afford it at that time. (I have no idea what Scotland's educational system was like back in the late 1800's) Scrooge had instead started taking up other jobs after the shoe shining gig before leaving Glasgow. According to Rosa's commentary in the Fantagraphics reprint of Life and Times, the idea of Scrooge being a shoe shiner in Glasgow came from a Tony Strobl story.

[hex]

Jul 17, 2016 16:58:15 GMT squeakyboots said:

According to Rosa's commentary in the Fantagraphics reprint of Life and Times, the idea of Scrooge being a shoe shiner in Glasgow came from a Tony Strobl story.

Getting That Healthy, Wealthy Feeling

The Invisible Intruder is an earlier (maybe) reference to being a shoe shiner, but in Getting That Healthy, Wealthy Feeling we get to know he earned his first dime this way.

I wonder if it is a coincidence that shoe shining is being used in both. The Invisible Intruder wasn't published until late 1963, and the other story is created in 1963 too.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

It's probably no coincidence, it's such a specific thing. As for Scrooge going to school, this 1970 Italian story clearly mentions that Scrooge went to school, and has the character of Victor Pilleur (that's his French name, translatable as Victor Robber, with an added pun on "torpilleur", torpedo -- but Victor Pedo would be a controversial pun to say the least, for obvious reasons). Victor Pilleur was a school bully who used to steal young Scrooge's pencils and quills. In the present day, Pilleur resurfaces as a business rival for Scrooge, who becomes the head of the Billionaires Club, much to Scrooge's dismay, as Pilleur abuses of his position to get Scrooge to give him money.

[Hector]

I don't think canon Scrooge ever went to school.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

What do you mean by "canon"? There is no "main" canon in Disney comics, and if there is, it's just the general continuity in which every story is supposed to take place unless otherwise noted, which would mean that the 1970 Italian story IS canon.

There is ONE special canon, Don Rosa's. But it's not "the" canon, it's "one" canon.

[RobbK1]

Barks didn't say or imply that Scrooge NEVER went to school. Most children in Scotland probably went to at least elementary school during the late 1800s. I think I'll be on safe grounds to have Scrooge attending elementary school at a young age. My big question is: Where did he grow up? Barks listed Cheapside, Scotland. I felt that that was a village or small town in a rural area of The Scottish Highlands, - NOT in a large metropolitan city, such as Glasgow. Rosa and Midthun placed his family in Glasgow. I'd rather have his family in a detached, small old ston village house, as a poor family, in a place where he could have gathered firewood, instead of a metropolis, where he could NOT likely have gathered free firewood. Unfortunately, I do know that there was and is an area of Glasgow known as Cheapside.

But, anyone who has accessto Barks' stories in English language (currently, I'm working in Germany, and only have access to Erika Fuchs' German translations of Barks stories, and so, don't know what Barks used. I'm pretty sure he just mentioned Cheapside, Scotland as Scrooge's early home, US 44 "The Invisible Intruder", and also in one of the earliest Uncle Scrooge magazines' long epic stories ("Only A Poor pold Man"?).

Please tell me if Barks ever mentioned that Scrooge lived in Glasgow before he went to North America to seek his fortune, at age 13.

Thanks.

[RobbK1]

I'm sure that Tony Strobl's S-coded story mentioned that young Scrooge shined shoes to earn his first dime, following Barks' story, "The Invisible Intruder". I doubt it was a coincidence.

[Matilda]

This doesn't advance your search, but I thought I'd mention that another story which shows Scrooge's childhood in Scotland is Byron Erickson's D 2012-158, part of his series on Donald's search for Christmas traditions. This episode includes a memory flashback (just over one page) of Scrooge's sole childhood Christmas celebration. Erickson hews to historical accuracy, having Scrooge explain that the celebration of Christmas was outlawed in Scotland in that period. But young Scrooge shines the shoes of two Englishmen who rhapsodize about family Christmas celebrations, and his parents end up providing a tree and homemade gifts for Scrooge and his sisters. Matilda and Hortense get dolls made by Downy, while in a very nice symbolic gesture, Scrooge gets a cardboard box made by Fergus to keep his earnings in--the proto-bin, you might say. The family is shown in a way consistent with Rosa's depictions. There is no mention of school, and no specifics about location, at least not in the German version I have.

[Ramapith]

Jul 17, 2016 21:19:38 GMT RobbK1 said:

My big question is: Where did he grow up? Barks listed Cheapside, Scotland.

Where did Barks list this?

Bob Gregory cited Cheapside in "One for the Whammy" and "The Search for Cyril," but I always thought it was Gregory's invention; I'm not aware of its having originated with Barks. Do you have a source for it in Barks?

Jul 17, 2016 21:21:09 GMT RobbK1 said:

I'm sure that Tony Strobl's S-coded story mentioned that young Scrooge shined shoes to earn his first dime, following Barks' story, "The Invisible Intruder". I doubt it was a coincidence.

"The Invisible Intruder" was written by Vic Lockman, not Barks.

(And for what it's worth, Strobl's S-coded story, "Getting That Healthy, Wealthy Feeling," was written by Fallberg.)

We're talking about the origins of some relatively important stuff in continuity—Scrooge's birthplace and, indirectly, how he obtained the Dime—so I want to be sure we get the relevant creators right.

[Matilda]

Just looked around some, and can't find where Barks specifies Scrooge's city of origin. Anyway, not mentioned in "The Golden River" or "Only a Poor Old Man" or "The Old Castle's Secret." "Invisible Intruder" doesn't even specify that Scrooge's childhood was in Scotland (and of course, it wasn't written by Barks anyway). In "Getting That Healthy, Wealthy Feeling" (Fallberg/Strobl), there is a two-panel flashback to Scrooge earning his first dime by shining the shoes of a ditch-digger. That is also not specified to be in Scotland...indeed, the fact that he earns an American dime would tend to lead one to believe that it is in America. Rosa decided to use the idea of Scrooge earning his first dime as a shoeshine boy, but found a way to get a dime into Scotland via Rockerduck's father.

Here's Rosa in his commentary in the Fantagraphics volume:

I regard any Scrooge tale not written by Carl Barks about his own character to be apocryphal. (So, I guess that includes my own, eh? Fair is fair.) But whenever another old Master of my childhood had previously decided on an element pertaining to Scrooge's childhood, I would try to let that guide me. As I already noted in regard to "Of Ducks and Dimes and Destinies," in Uncle Scrooge 50 (1964) there was a story drawn by Tony Strobl which showed a young Scrooge earning his first dime by cleaning a ditchdigger's boots. This seemed completely appropriate for a poor Glasgow lad, so I allowed a non-Barksian "fact" to direct me this once. There was another story in Uncle Scrooge 44 (1963)--"The Invisible Intruder," drawn but not written by Barks--which also showed a scene of a young Scrooge shining shoes; I recreated only some of the Barks art from that tale and disregarded the silly plot <end quote>

Here's the full childhood quotation from "Golden River": "I never had time to read stories when I was a boy! I scoured the hills of my native Scotland looking for firewood! I'd gather heaps of the stuff, and in winter when the rich dudes were cold, I'd sell them the wood at monstrous prices!...I spent my boyhood working and starting my fortune!" So, while you might argue that a small town setting would be closer to woods, there's also the question of access to rich dudes as customers, which suggests a city. Also, if you want to allow for the iconic image of Scrooge as a shoeshine boy (even if it didn't come from Barks' writing), it's not clear that it would pay to set oneself up as a shoeshine boy in a small town in the Highlands! I think it makes more sense to assume that Scrooge grew up in a city, and that even though they were no longer in the Highlands, his family carried the memory of Clan McDuck--after all, they were not just members of the clan but the direct descendants of the lairds of the clan.

[Matilda]

p.s. Is there really an area of Glasgow called Cheapside? A Google search finds only the street, Cheapside St, in the district of Anderston in Glasgow. It's the location of the Cheapside Fire, 1960, greatest peacetime fire services disaster in British history.

[nectaria]

Jul 17, 2016 19:47:12 GMT Hector said:

I don't think canon Scrooge ever went to school.

I think you should  have written your post a bit longer to understand it more clearly what you were saying. I agree with Scrooge MacDuck that there's no a "main" or "official" canon in Disney Comics but we can have our headcanons instead. There are some members who considered Don Rosa's LoS timeline as canon but there are also other members here who didn't considering it as canon. Not really sure if Rosa have thought of this idea about Scrooge going to school but I don't think it would a bad idea about writing this story.